Thursday, March 22, 2012

David Koch Gives Ed Crane an Employment Review

Whoa, in a nine-page statement David Koch claims that Cato president Ed Crane is siding with Obama supporters. Koch goes on and says:

1.Crane has launched a "scorched earth public relations campaign".

2. Others were told that if we did not back down, Ed would form a new organization, which presumably would leave Cato in ruins.

3.This has led to third parties such as Common Cause, a partisan activist group that has launched dishonest and violent attacks against us, to call for investigations into the tax-exempt status of Cato. It also has caused members of the far left, such as Center for American Progress, to side with Bob and Ed as yet another way to attack Charles and me. These attacks are by people and organizations that oppose the principles of a free society and only want to harm Cato and those who support it.Sadly, we have seen this tactic by Cato’s management before.

4.During the past decade, Charles and I gave more money to the Cato Institute – more than $13 million – than we had given in any previous decade. Notwithstanding all the wonderful things said about us when soliciting that support, in 2010, Ed became a source for Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, providing negative background on an article that was highly critical of Charles and me. This one-sided and politically motivated piece was driven by Obama supporters at the Center for American Progress as an attempt to prevent us from effectively opposing the Administration’s anti-libertarian agenda.

5. Ed has shown, he will partner with anyone – including those that oppose Cato and what it stands for – to further his personal agenda at the expense of others working to advance a free society.

6. We view Ed’s strategy as “Rule or Ruin” – he will either be allowed to rule Cato in the way he wants for as long as he wants, or he will try to ruin it.

7. major problem with Cato as it now exists is that it is not nearly as effective as it could be. This is, in large part, due to the behavior and management practices of its CEO – behavior that would have resulted in his termination from most corporations, let alone one that is supposed to exemplify the values of a free society, including integrity, value creation, creative destruction, humility, intellectual honesty, and treating others with dignity and respect. The fact that the current Cato board has allowed this behavior convinces us that a change is needed if Cato is to be more effective. Some directors have even suggested that Cato “belongs” to Ed. Having a board in thrall of the CEO has been the downfall of many nonprofits

I always hear how the Koch brothers are not real libertarians. I am young and new to this game. Please tell me where I can go read about why people at Lew Rockwell.com etc hate the Kochs. What did they do?

The Kochs illegally kicked Murray Rothbard out of Cato about thirty years ago. You can read his account of it at lewrockwell.com. They also have been more interested in rubbing shoulders with the power elite than they have in truly advancing the cause of liberty.

It's not a hatred, but rather a strong distaste for people who claim to present libertarian ideals, yet act against them at every turn. It also goes back to the tactical differences in the '70's between them and Murray Rothbard. Rothbard wanted purity and the Kochs wanted inclusion. The Kochs won and have watered down through affiliations while lewrockwell.com carries on the pure ideals. It's also aggravating when people who should know better act as statist as those that don't. That's why Republicans also get more chiding than Democrats.

During the 70s, Murray Rothbard started the Cato Institute alongside the Koch Brothers (even giving it its name). Then, as the Koch Brothers came to realize he cared more about principle than pragmatism, they decided to dissociate themselves from him, having Ed Crane purge Rothbard from the ranks and (illegally) confiscate his shares. The Cato Institute has since become a proxy for the Koch Brothers, who (being Rockefeller Republicans, essentially) use it as a way of using libertarian ideals to shore up the voting base of the Republican Party. Of course, libertarians have been steadily extracting themselves from the mainstream of the GOP, which just demonstrates this very same ineffective management the Koch Brothers are talking about.

For more on the Koch Brothers, just trying looking at the Daily Bell's page on them (assuming they've made one) or sifting through some of the older stuff in the LRC archive. The present situation is just poetic justice, though.

Bob - It's becoming increasingly clear that this entire episode is about the deeply personal differences between the Koch Bros. and Boss Crane.

I also have a strong hunch there's something very ugly sitting just under the surface of the current management at Cato. The Kochs have taken the relative high road in not saying what it is, but that's also why David's letter drops in those odd moral phrases like treating people with "dignity and respect."

The Kochs used to finance their own group of interns to stay for a residency at Cato every semester. They pulled the plug on that completely and very suddenly about 2 years ago. I think there's a good chance the reasons are related.

I have to give something to the Koch brothers. I understand their frustration. They bought and paid for the whores at Cato and now the whores won't get on their knees, open their mouths, and perform. Seems to me the Koch bros have a justified complaint. After all, they aren't insisting that the whores swallow but only suck.

What the hell kind of a dumb ass are you, "yes we push people with questions away from our small movement". Yea, I hate young new people with questions too, let's make sure we're all just a bunch of old guys who die off and no one will hear from us again.